Our Baby is 1!

Brookie is officially 1 year old! Sorry so long since my last update. I can explain. But first, here are some photos from her birthday party!!

My cake lady couldn't do the cake on short notice,

so I did it myself. I was pretty proud!

Pardon my lack of makeup. We spent the morning in 

the sun at my dad's camp.

So...onto the family update. Bullets will be the best way to do this...since there's a lot going on.

• Our house is officially for sale. We have decided to move back to New York. We really want the kids to grow up with their cousins. I have a niece and nephew (and another nephew on the way) who barely know me and that really bothers me. We realize that it is not a seller's market, but we have put it in God's hands and have faith that He will put us where we are supposed to be.
• Carter is almost 100% potty trained! We are just working on him pooping on the potty. He is completely out of diapers, though...even at night.
• Brooklyn is walking! She started a few days ago and is doing great!!

• Carter's 3rd birthday is coming up at the end of October. He wants a NASCAR birthday. We have picked out Pit Pass invitations and I am making a race track cake.
• Brooklyn is absolutely obsessed with baby dolls. You rarely ever see her without one...she tries shoving 2 or more into her doll stroller at one time and will push them around all day. If she doesn't have one and wants one, she will yell "Baby doll!" and get to the nearest one as fast as she can. She got about 15 new dolls for her birthday.
• I heard from one of the DJs at WKKY, the radio station I Guest DJed at a couple summers ago. They asked me to do the show again. Rumor has it they are hiring. Fingers crossed!!
• We switched from cable to DirecTV/ATT so we can get the NFL Sunday Ticket. I saved quite a bit of money, so that was a nice surprise!

Well, that about sums it up. I'm sure life will continue to get crazier, but we say "Bring it on!!" We can handle anything as long as we are together! I will leave you with a funny video of the kids that I took on my cell phone at my mother-in-law's.

Brooklyn's 1st Birthday Shoot

I did Brooklyn's 1 year photos this week. We returned to the same park that we did my maternity photos at almost a year ago. I can't believe how big my little girl is getting. I can imagine her birthday will be a rough day for me. My last baby is growing up way too fast!

Back with my Mac!

I haven't had much opportunity to blog since my laptop was ruined. My AppleCare protection plan didn't cover accidental damage, so I was stuck buying a brand new MacBook Pro. I just got it today. Thankfully, the guy was able to transfer most of the files from the other one, so I didn't lose too much. I also bought a 2TB Time Capsule, which wirelessly backs up all of my files automatically. If something like this were to happen again, at least each and every file will be safe and sound. 

So much has happened in the last 2 months. At the beginning of this month, Steven left his job and we decided that we are ready to move back to New York. He began applying for jobs and actually landed one right away. We certainly weren't expecting it to happen so quickly, since we still have a house to sell. We gave it a try to see if he could stay in NY and work while the kids and I stayed behind and prepared the house to go on the market. We are just too good of a team...he spoke to his employer and told them the story. They said to let them know when we were back for good and hopefully they would have a position open for him. It was certainly worth a try, but he is my love, my best friend, my partner in everything I do, and we just couldn't be apart for such a length of time. He returned home and we are now preparing the house to go on the market...which is way more work than I ever expected. I pray that it sells quickly and that we can get back to NY soon.

The kids are growing like crazy!! Brooklyn will be 1 on September 10th. She is talking and almost walking all by herself! She pushes her baby stroller now and I expect her to take off any day now! Carter is on his way to being potty trained. He has had a few accidents here and there, but I am so proud of my big boy! As soon as I upload all of the photos that I've taken since "the juice incident", I will do a picture post. You won't believe your eyes!!

Now that I am back online, I promise I won't stay away too long! Expect lots more updates as we get further into this stressful but fun process of selling/buying/moving!

Wishing Summer Would Never End

We have been making the most of this beautiful weather and spending a lot of time outside. Steven just got off of night shift for 2 weeks, which was very difficult. I did my best and had a good amount of help from my mom, but I am certainly happy to have a break from it! He had the weekend off and goes back on days tomorrow.

We had a very very unfortunate mishap the other night. I was doing some birthday party projects on my MacBook Pro and Carter kept getting up giving me all sorts of excuses to why he couldn't go to sleep. He started to climb my wheelchair and went to grab my glass of juice that was sitting next to my laptop on the counter...over it went. I immediately dried the computer off and flipped it over, but the damage was done. It is completely fried. I lost everything. I am in the process of purchasing a new one, but I am searching for the best price. My mom let me borrow her MacBook Pro for the weekend.

Anyway, back to the summer fun! My mother-in-law and the kids' Godmother came to visit from NY for the weekend. Grandma brought the kids a water/sand table and some other goodies. Godmother "Diz" bought them a pool while they were here. We had such a fun time. We played, relaxed, and cooked out the last 2 days. They had to go back home today, but we will be making a trip up there in 2 weeks for Steven's birthday, so we have that to look forward to.

Here are some pictures from our fun weekend!!

Let Freedom Ring!

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! We certainly did! I had a huge family get-together at my house. Usually, the parties are at my aunt's, but this year I was nominated...and I was so excited! Steven had 3 days off in a row before the holiday, so he worked his butt off to make the outside of our house look nice. We really had been neglecting it...there were weeds everywhere and the shrubbery was out of control. We had 2 yards of mulch delivered and he worked on it for 2 days straight...on his days off.

This is what he had to work with. It was like this everywhere.

He's a miracle worker, isn't he??

So, the yard looks excellent and the party was a blast. Not as many people showed up as I had hoped, but that just ended with us having lots of yummy leftovers! Sorry I don't have any pictures...I was trying to be a good hostess and had no time to step back and snap and shots.

We took the kids to watch fireworks on Monday night. I was very surprised, but Brooklyn was laughing hysterically the entire time! She loved them!! Carter was a bit more leary of them, but after he got used to the loud noises, I think he really enjoyed them, too. I had my friend's 5 year old daughter man my point-and-shoot camera for the evening to make sure we got a couple family pictures. She wants to follow in my footsteps and be a photographer...so I put her to work every chance I get!

Now I'm onto planning our next party, which will be Brookie's 1st birthday. She has grown so fast!! I can't believe it has been 10 months since we were blessed with our adorable little diva. She is now crawling, talking like crazy, and pulling herself up on everything she can get her hands on. She loves being independent, very much unlike her snuggly-buggly older brother, and prefers being on the floor by herself over being held. She is an amazing eater, also unlike her brother. We still have to bribe him to eat. He's so skinny. Brookie only weighs 10 pounds less than Carter. She wears a size 3 diaper, he wears a size 4. Even though they are so different, they love each other to pieces and they interact so well. It melts my heart.

I am one very blessed mama!